Contents

Period 2009-10-01 to 2009-10-14

Distributions

QtMoko

QtMoko is a Debian-based distribution for the Openmoko Freerunner phone. Phone and user interface are based on QT Extended, formerly known as Qtopia. We have all Freerunner hardware working and also as a phone it should be very usable. Now we have a growing number of packages in the qtmoko-apps repository and also it is possible to access endless packages from Debian. Changes from previous version:

Applications

New Applications

fso-simplemixer

Al Johnson made python mixer app that maps a single slider to multiple alsa channels, so you can have one slider for 'Mic' and another for 'earpiece'. It's based on Angus Ainslie's fso-mixer, but using lookup tables for which channels to show in which scenario, and for mapping the single slider to multiple channels. It's at proof of concept stage now, but should be as functional as fso-mixer. If you aren't using stock ones it would be a good idea to back them up before using it just in case! Feedback would be welcome.

Ghislain has just released a new small backup-application (which is not in the QtMoko feeds yet). This application creates a qtbackup.tgz on the sdcard. The application itself can only create backups, not restore. The restore function to the QtMoko installer-kernel checks, after flashing the rootfs, if the qtbackup.tgz file is available and if it is it extracts this file in the root of the freshly flashed rootfs. As you can guess, the main purpose of this little app is te keep settings, applications, contacts etc over new versions. You can already try this app if you add a new feed with the following url: http://www.openmobile.nl/media/qtmoko

NeoLight turns your Neo into a flashlight. It flips the brightness up to full and displays a full-screen bright white rectangle. It is written in Python/Elementary. NeoLight was tested on SHR unstable only but should work with all FSO based distributions. Features include:

Bright white or colored (red/green/blue/custom) screen

Brightness dimmer

Strobe light mode (with adjustable speed)

Just tap the top left/right corners of screen to dim brightness.

Changes in 1.2.0:

Speed up startup again (~2 seconds less), now it takes ~3 seconds.

Fixed a bug in "Custom Color". It was impossible to set the red and the blue colors to 0.

This package is a port of Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection, for SHR and similar distros for use on the Neo FreeRunner. This package includes a shell script that lets users disable/enable individual desktop icons, making it possible to reduce the number even without installing a launcher. It also includes some basic support for launchers, automatically removing the desktop icons when a compatible launcher is installed, except those icons that have been explicitly enabled (so you can have both a launcher, and your favorite games on the desktop for quick access). Examle launcher is also created, and packaged separately. It is fairly simple, just displays a grid of plain buttons, but space is so limited due to the number of games.

AGTL makes geocaching paperless! It downloads cache locations in the area visible on the map including their description, hints, difficulty levels and images. Searching for caches in your local db is a matter of seconds. The currently selected cache is shown on the map (and also all the others if you want) and there's a traditional compass-like view that always points at the cache. A manual exists on the wiki. 0.4.0 version contains lots of new features:

Added cool command line interface! See below for features.

Completely new search feature

New "marking" feature: Mark interesting geocaches and get back to them quickly.

Added upper bound for visible caches to improve speed

Added upscaling of missing map tiles

Changed image loading*

Don't redraw map on movement if your position isn't shown anyway

Changed quality indicator to see how exact the shown position is. Shows if DPGS-Satellites (SBAS) are in sight.

Recursive retrieval of geocaches. Download more geocaches with one click.

Community

Sadly for FreeRunner community, Rod Whitby decided to leave us and started a new community webos-internals , which does open source Linux-based development for the Palm Pre. On his good bye email, he wished everyone continuing down the OpenMoko path the best of success in the future. One of his great jobs was developing Mokomakefile.

The European Union has opened its EGNOS navigation augmentation system for public use. According to this thread, FreeRunner might be able to use EGNOS.

David Samblas has showed some work he has done for now regarding OM-Showroom. It still needs more work, both on the server and in the code before it can go online, but there are some screenshots to show the work in progress. Comments and of course collaboration are welcome.

Christoph Mair did a great job of adding a pressure sensor to FreeRuner! The BMP085 chip from Bosch Sensortec is a small (5x5x1.5mm) chip which includes a pressure and a temperature sensor. Power and I2C is enough to get it working. You can glue it easily next to the Bluetooth antenna. The I2C_Pressure_Sensor wiki page contains some pictures.

Because of heavy load of traffic, Radek Polak decided to move QtMoko downloads to new location at sourceforge.net. There is also mirror of GIT tree, but use it only as backup, main development will remain on github. Other SF services, like mailing list, also can be used if needed.

As usual you can track progress ofgta02-core project on Álvaro Lopes blog. Álvaro does his best to update it every week.

Fedora Electronic Lab announced support for openmoko hardware development. Hence for Fedora-12 release, they have included the trunk version of kicad, openocd, and fped. Thus openmoko developers can now work out of the box with this software.

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Period 2009-10-01 to 2009-10-14

Distributions

QtMoko

QtMoko is a Debian-based distribution for the Openmoko Freerunner phone. Phone and user interface are based on QT Extended, formerly known as Qtopia. We have all Freerunner hardware working and also as a phone it should be very usable. Now we have a growing number of packages in the qtmoko-apps repository and also it is possible to access endless packages from Debian. Changes from previous version:

Applications

New Applications

fso-simplemixer

Al Johnson made python mixer app that maps a single slider to multiple alsa channels, so you can have one slider for 'Mic' and another for 'earpiece'. It's based on Angus Ainslie's fso-mixer, but using lookup tables for which channels to show in which scenario, and for mapping the single slider to multiple channels. It's at proof of concept stage now, but should be as functional as fso-mixer. If you aren't using stock ones it would be a good idea to back them up before using it just in case! Feedback would be welcome.

Ghislain has just released a new small backup-application (which is not in the QtMoko feeds yet). This application creates a qtbackup.tgz on the sdcard. The application itself can only create backups, not restore. The restore function to the QtMoko installer-kernel checks, after flashing the rootfs, if the qtbackup.tgz file is available and if it is it extracts this file in the root of the freshly flashed rootfs. As you can guess, the main purpose of this little app is te keep settings, applications, contacts etc over new versions. You can already try this app if you add a new feed with the following url: http://www.openmobile.nl/media/qtmoko

NeoLight turns your Neo into a flashlight. It flips the brightness up to full and displays a full-screen bright white rectangle. It is written in Python/Elementary. NeoLight was tested on SHR unstable only but should work with all FSO based distributions. Features include:

Bright white or colored (red/green/blue/custom) screen

Brightness dimmer

Strobe light mode (with adjustable speed)

Just tap the top left/right corners of screen to dim brightness.

Changes in 1.2.0:

Speed up startup again (~2 seconds less), now it takes ~3 seconds.

Fixed a bug in "Custom Color". It was impossible to set the red and the blue colors to 0.

This package is a port of Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection, for SHR and similar distros for use on the Neo FreeRunner. This package includes a shell script that lets users disable/enable individual desktop icons, making it possible to reduce the number even without installing a launcher. It also includes some basic support for launchers, automatically removing the desktop icons when a compatible launcher is installed, except those icons that have been explicitly enabled (so you can have both a launcher, and your favorite games on the desktop for quick access). Examle launcher is also created, and packaged separately. It is fairly simple, just displays a grid of plain buttons, but space is so limited due to the number of games.

AGTL makes geocaching paperless! It downloads cache locations in the area visible on the map including their description, hints, difficulty levels and images. Searching for caches in your local db is a matter of seconds. The currently selected cache is shown on the map (and also all the others if you want) and there's a traditional compass-like view that always points at the cache. A manual exists on the wiki. 0.4.0 version contains lots of new features:

Added cool command line interface! See below for features.

Completely new search feature

New "marking" feature: Mark interesting geocaches and get back to them quickly.

Added upper bound for visible caches to improve speed

Added upscaling of missing map tiles

Changed image loading*

Don't redraw map on movement if your position isn't shown anyway

Changed quality indicator to see how exact the shown position is. Shows if DPGS-Satellites (SBAS) are in sight.

Recursive retrieval of geocaches. Download more geocaches with one click.

Community

Sadly for FreeRunner community, Rod Whitby decided to leave us and started a new community webos-internals , which does open source Linux-based development for the Palm Pre. On his good bye email, he wished everyone continuing down the OpenMoko path the best of success in the future. One of his great jobs was developing Mokomakefile.

The European Union has opened its EGNOS navigation augmentation system for public use. According to this thread, FreeRunner might be able to use EGNOS.

David Samblas has showed some work he has done for now regarding OM-Showroom. It still needs more work, both on the server and in the code before it can go online, but there are some screenshots to show the work in progress. Comments and of course collaboration are welcome.

Christoph Mair did a great job of adding a pressure sensor to FreeRuner! The BMP085 chip from Bosch Sensortec is a small (5x5x1.5mm) chip which includes a pressure and a temperature sensor. Power and I2C is enough to get it working. You can glue it easily next to the Bluetooth antenna. The I2C_Pressure_Sensor wiki page contains some pictures.

Because of heavy load of traffic, Radek Polak decided to move QtMoko downloads to new location at sourceforge.net. There is also mirror of GIT tree, but use it only as backup, main development will remain on github. Other SF services, like mailing list, also can be used if needed.

As usual you can track progress ofgta02-core project on Álvaro Lopes blog. Álvaro does his best to update it every week.

Fedora Electronic Lab announced support for openmoko hardware development. Hence for Fedora-12 release, they have included the trunk version of kicad, openocd, and fped. Thus openmoko developers can now work out of the box with this software.